Um, Gridlock Sam is not the most reliable source; he’s the paid consultant to the Barclays Center. He said it’s fine to shut down Atlantic Avenue after events, but that’s a bug, not a feature. It was never disclosed or planned.

Oh, good. The ATU. And guess what? They want commuter buses bus rapid transit! They just happen to want the mode that inflicts the most suffering on transit users, costs the most, and generates the most make-work for ATU members. Chris Christie for NYS Governor. He can cancel the bridge, and then fed to the pigeons before he does something stupid.

Larry Littlefield

“MTA fares and tolls are on a path to climb 35 percent over an eight-year span ending in 2015 — more than double the rate of inflation, according to a report from the state comptroller.
Of course you’d get a very different relationship to inflation if you picked another year.

And I have a suggestion: 1986, the year DiNapoli was elected to the New York State legislature. The future selling, which he voted for and never talked about, began a few years later. The debts. The pension deals. He was in favor of them all. And now we are in the future, his future, and he takes no responsibility.

When DiNapoli took office, the fare was $1.00, which is $2.10 in today’s money.

From 1995 to 2003 the fare never changed, and all those free transfers, unlimited rides, and Metrocard discounts were introduced — even as non-fare money for the agency was cut. It’s been increase after increase since then, but only to pay for the Pataki/Silver/Bruno/DiNapoli debt.

The current fare is $2.25, but you’d have to adjust for all those discounts to make things comparable. Set to go higher? Why? To pay for DiNapoli’s generation, and the favors thereto that made the careers of people like him, that’s why. But no one says so.

I know DiNapoli, and I know that you know.

Larry Littlefield

“The 47 year-old man was driving at a “High rate of speed” in his 2006 BMW.”

Another crash for the Ultimate Driving Machine. This time blame a mid-life crisis, rather than some father giving some idiot teen or twenty-something a fast car for his last birthday.

Anonymous

Re: Tacks on the Queensboro Bridge. So assuming that the NYPD and Homeland Security have cameras all over the bridge, it should take them about 5 minutes to use their facial recognition software to identify and arrest the perpetrators. If not, then we should be very worried about the security of our bridges because those perpetrators could have easily planted a bomb instead.

kevd

The fact is that $2.25 is more than competitive with transit rates in other major cities.
In fact, its quite a deal for longer distance commuters who would pay for multipule zones in most other major international cities.

$2.50 will be, as well. The main problem? The way NYC residents subsidise suburban commuters because fare box recovery is so much lower on the commuter lines than on the Subway. If the MTA is so hard up, perhaps suburban commuters should be asked to contribute the same percentage of the cost of their rides that city residents pay. It is now something like 70%, right?

I’d like to call folk’s attention to a hobbyhorse of this site, as it affects the Windsor Terrace Key Food. Walgreens now owns the 10,000-square-foot building, but the neighbors are protesting because they want a supermarket as well. Under current zoning they could go to 20,000 square feet in two floors.

But how about going to 30,000 square feet in three floors, including a celler level, in a new building? Even more room for retailing in walking distance. So what is making that impossible? The parking requirement.

Section 12-10 of the Zoning Resolution, the definition of “Floor Area.”

However, the #floor area# of a #building# shall not include:(1) #cellar# space, except where such space is used for dwellingpurposes. #Cellar# space used for retailing shall beincluded for the purpose of calculating requirements for#accessory# off-street parking spaces, #accessory# bicycle parking spaces and #accessory# off-street loading berths;parking spaces and #accessory# off-street loading berths;

Bolwerk

@f9b2cb395abd5a101456b3b0a40912e1:disqus: I always took the unlimiteds and free transfers to be part of what drove transit’s revitalization. Trips that used not to be practical now are, and using under-utilized capacity is encouraged at a discount.

Larry Littlefield

Yes lower prices led to more usage. But that is appreciated by no one political. So the MTA is damned for raising fares.

Anonymous

Larry,
“but only to pay for the Pataki/Silver/Bruno/DiNapoli debt.”

Correct, but you forgot about Giuliani grabbing the supposed $60 million surplus so the Board of Ed didn’t have to pay for one million daily student transit trips, and Giuliani stole the same $60 million so they city didn’t have to pay for station maintenance, and used the same for a forgotten third reason. Then Gov Pataki held back $180 million in state matching funds, so the total stolen by the city and state was $360 million.

Please, even though the Rude One is not currently in elected office, let’s add Giuliani to your hit list: Pataki/Silver/Bruno/DiNapoli/Giuliani.
Unfortunately, Emperor Giulius the Rude still has too much influence on current politics.

Larry Littlefield

“Correct, but you forgot about Giuliani.”

Ah, I shouldn’t forget Giuliani. He was in on the 2000 pension deal too.

But if you want to get the whole picture, state and city funding for the MTA was slashed in the deep early 1990s recession under Cuomo/Dinkins, to get through a budget crisis. Blame or not blame as you wish, given the desperate situation at the time.

But when the economy improved and the tax dollars rolled in, that money was sent elsewhere instead of being restored. (Roads were de-funded in the same way). No excuse of that.

There was no restoration under Spitzer, Paterson, and Bloomberg either, although Bloomberg proposed congestion pricing and the legislature passed the payroll tax in lieu of direct funding. But by that time the debt was so large that it all went to debt service, not transportation.

Ian Turner

@qrt145:disqus : I was actually accosted by a pedestrian once for checking my phone while waiting for a red light on my bicycle.